1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates to improvements in motor vehicles especially to motor vehicles employed as buses. In particular, the invention relates to bus apparatus which inhibits curb-proximity induced damage to a tire or to the body of the bus.
2. Prior Background Art
The invention is useful in motor Vehicles in general. However, the invention as a improvement in a bus has been chosen as the method of its exposition. Busses customarily pull up adjacent to a curb alongside a roadway or in a terminal to allow passengers to more easily board and disembark from the bus. In busses employed today, the bus driver is usually seated forward of, or over, the front wheels of the bus. From this position, it is difficult for the driver to judge the distance between the curbing and the front tire as the bus approaches a curb in preparation for parking parallel to that curb.
The bus driver is generally prohibited from opening the passenger entry door while the bus is in motion. Thus, the driver cannot open the door to obtain an unimpeded view of the curbing at the side of the bus. Only experience gained from repeated attempts at parallel parking enables a driver to parallel park a bus along side a curb without impacting the front wheel tire with the curb in the course of a parking operation. Unfortunately, because of the high turn-over rate of employment in the bus industry, many drivers do not retain their employment long enough to gain sufficient experience to park a bus without incurring damage to a front tire as a result of colliding with or overriding the curb.
Another recurring problem exacerbated by lack of driver experience is damage resulting to the body of the bus when a driver cuts a corner too sharply and rides the rear wheel over a corner curbing. Such incidents are not only damaging to the rear tire, they are potential sources of body damage resulting from contact between the bus body and trees, posts, and other objects on the sidewalk immediately adjacent the curb. Even more serious is the danger presented to pedestrians by such curb jumping incidents.
In head-in parking situations in which the bus is driven forward toward a wheel-stopping structure, here deemed to be generically equivalent to a curb, damage is often caused by the lower extremities of the front of the bus contacting the curb as the front wheels are drawn proximate the curb.
The cost of replacing tires damaged by curbing in the course of parallel parking operations can run into thousands of dollars per bus per month. This means that tires that might last the better part of a year on a heavily traveled bus route may last less than a month because of damage incurred in parallel parking the bus along side curbs. Similarly, some bus companies report that body damage induced by repeated corner-cutting, curb-jumping incidents represents one of their highest avoidable costs of operation. Front end damage resulting from head-in parking operations is generally more unsightly than significant, yet repairs are necessitated as the owners and management of the vehicle are judged by its appearance.
"Curb Feelers," in the form of wires extending from a motor vehicle, are well known for use as proximity alarms to alert the vehicle's driver of that the vehicle is coming too close to the curb. When the feeler wire contacts the curbing, vibrations are communicated through the chassis of the vehicle. The vibrations are audible and, when heard by the driver, induce the driver to steer away from the curb. Unfortunately, such devices do not function effectively when used on buses as the audible vibrations are diluted and absorbed in other, more prominent, vehicle sounds associated with the operation of a bus.
The addition of some other form of sensible alarm to the basic curb feeler, proximity alarm of the prior art has not been effective. Prior art curb feelers suffer extremely short lives when inserted into the operating environment of a bus. The mere addition of a prior art device to the body of a bus, fails to anticipate the extreme usage conditions such a device will be subjected to when compared to the relatively infrequent use such a device will experience when mounted on a family car, or the like.
To solve the problem of damage induced by curb proximity incidents the teachings of the instant invention are directed toward improving the bus itself. The solution derived must be an integral part of the working vehicle itself. It must function in the extremes of road and weather conditions to which the bus as a whole is subjected. It must substitute itself for the front tire or rear tire in making repeated, jarring, damaging contacts with a curb. It must survive such repeated, damaging contacts while continuing to alert the bus driver to steer away from the curb so as to avoid damage to tires or bus body. Its use must obviate damaging contact so as to extend the useful life of a tire mounted on the front or rear wheel of a bus, and avoid repeated body repairs. It must pay for itself many times over by drastically reducing body repair costs and the rate of replacement of tires on a bus to which the solution is applied by essentially eliminating curb-proximity induced damage to the bus front and rear tires and body. Finally, it must alert the driver that the wheel-stop curbing used in head-in parking areas is of a height that can produce front end damage to the motor vehicle if the bus is driven forward sufficiently to achieve wheel contact with the stop curb.